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Teaching the basics
Welcome to the gym essentials page, your go-to guide to mastering the basics of working out. We're here to build your confidence in the gym giving tips for proper form, progressive overload, setting realistic goals, nutrition basics, and getting you fit. Use this free guide to start your journey and for extra help go to our Program List to find what path is best for you.
More content coming soon
Why strength train?
Strength Training
Strength training is the key to transforming your body. Whether your goal is weight loss, muscle gain, or health, strength training is the way to go.
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Building Muscle
Strength training is the most efficient way to build muscle, Making it essential to building a healthy body.
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Improving
bone density
Becoming stronger improves bone density, reducing the risk of fractures, osteoporosis, and age-related bone loss, while supporting better overall stability and mobility.
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Weight
Loss
Strength training helps direct some calories toward muscle repair and growth instead of fat storage.
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Boosting
metabolism
Strength training boosts metabolism by increasing muscle mass, which burns more calories at rest, aiding in weight management and overall energy balance.
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Increasing
Strength
Being stronger makes daily tasks easier, such as lifting, carrying, and climbing stairs, while reducing fatigue and risk of injury.
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Mental Health
Being stronger enhances mental health by reducing stress, improving mood through endorphin release, building confidence, and promoting resilience against anxiety and depression.
Start with the basics
7 foundational movements
All exercises use one or more of these movements. Mastering these motions and recognizing them in your workouts is the key to mastering your routine.
Hinge
Hips drive backward with a neutral spine, emphasizing the posterior chain muscles like the glutes and hamstrings.
Squat
Hips and knees bend to lower the body, with weight evenly distributed through the feet, targeting the legs, glutes, and core.
Push
Force is applied to move an object or body part away from the body, primarily engaging the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
Pull
Force is applied to bring an object or body part toward the body, primarily engaging the back, biceps, and rear shoulders.
rotate
Turns the torso around the spine, engaging the core and obliques to facilitate rotational strength and mobility.
Lunge
One leg steps forward, backward, or sideways while lowering the body into a bend at the knee, targeting the legs, glutes, and core for balance and strength.
Plank
Static core exercise where the body is held in a straight line from head to heels, engaging the core, shoulders, and glutes for stability and strength.
Track your Progress
Progressive overload
When talking to prospects and potential clients, coaches often hear the same line: "I've been working out consistently but I'm no longer showing progress." And this is usually followed up with a negative lens such as "I must have already reached my limit", or "It's just hard for me to gain muscle." The common misconception usually revolves around the idea that the odds are stacked against you. Maybe they are, but no matter what your situation is, there is always progress to be made. How do we do this? Progressive overload.
Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed on the body during exercise to stimulate growth and improve strength, endurance, or performance. This can be achieved by increasing weight, repetitions, sets, or intensity as we progress, ensuring continuous adaptation and improvement. It's a foundational principle of fitness, helping you avoid plateaus while building strength and resilience safely and effectively. To dumb it down: We keep making our lifts more challenging over time.
Progressive overload in action:
What it looks like:
When a coach is working with a beginner client they start with the basics, learning the foundational movements as well as how to exercise within those ranges of motion. For example a client may start with a box squat and then progress to a bodyweight squat. As they get stronger the bodyweight squat does not challenge them anymore so they move to goblet squats, then back squats, and so on. We have a video on this linked here. As they progress in this movement we start to add more weight and more reps that way it never becomes an easy task. Bodies build under pressure.
Implementation in our programs:
When working your way through a SourFit program you'll first notice that each workout has two variations. The first variation is the Standard program, in which beginner and intermediate attendees will be able to work their way through. The second variation is the Advanced program, in which all of the exercises correlate to the standard, but in a more advanced format. Another opportunity for progressive overload is when some exercises are repeated from previous workouts. When revisiting an exercise you've done before be sure to push yourself past your previous limits, either by increasing the amount of weight you lift or increasing the number of reps you complete.
Set clear goals
Goal Setting
Setting SMART goals:
Before starting your training program, you need to have a goal to work toward. This will impact the way you work out. We always promote SMART goal setting, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Essentially, this means you are working toward a specific and reasonable goal with a plan, rather than a vague statement like "I want to lose weight," "I want to get in shape," or even "I want to lose body fat." A prime example of a SMART goal would look like: "I plan to follow a fitness program and use a calorie deficit to reach 160 pounds bodyweight by May."
How you should implement this:
First you need to define what your goal is whether it involves gaining muscle, getting or staying healthy, or losing weight. Whatever your goal is will dictate what your journey looks like. If you are planning on building muscle you can expect to gain 1-2 pounds of muscle mass per month assuming your routine is effective. For those who are trying to lose weight it is healthy to lose 4-8 pounds per month if your routine is effective. By using these metrics we can calculate a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goal. Set your goal, measure your progress, and achieve your dream physique.
Eat Real Food
Nutrition and metabolism
Macronutrients:
Macronutrients are the three essential nutrients the body needs in large amounts for energy and function: protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Protein supports muscle growth and repair, carbohydrates provide quick energy, and fats aid in hormone production and long-term energy storage. Each macronutrient plays a crucial role in overall health, and balancing them properly can optimize performance. We always recommend eating a high protein diet where protein accounts for 20% - 40% of your diet.
Burning Fat:
There is more misinformation about burning fat than anything else you can find. The most simple and the most effective way is a calorie deficit. Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is the number of calories your body burns at rest to keep essential functions like breathing and digestion going. The higher your RMR, the more calories your body burns naturally, even when you're not active. Building muscle can increase your RMR because muscle tissue burns more calories. This means that having more muscle can help your body burn more fat over time, even when you're not exercising. Effective exercise and a healthy diet both play a role in supporting fat burning and boosting your metabolism.
Key takeaways: Limit your calorie intake, increase muscle mass.
Tools to help:
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Strength training: Look at our Programs
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Tracking calories: Find any nutrition app or website, we have found MyFitnessPal or Carb Manager to be particularly useful.
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Personal help: Look into one-on-on Consultations
Calories:
Calories are not fat. They are units of energy that fuel the body for daily activities and functions. Consuming more calories than you burn leads to weight gain, this is called a calorie surplus. In a calorie surplus the body stores calories as fat to be used as energy later. When you consume less calories than you burn your body burns this extra fat as fuel, this is called a calorie deficit. This is why it is important to track your calories as you cannot out train a bad diet. Keep in mind everyone has a different resting metabolic rate (the number of daily calories your body burns at rest) so calorie needs are different for everyone.
Gaining muscle:
Gaining muscle is a slow but rewarding process. The most important part is to strength train with full range of motion and heavy weights. We recommend pushing until reaching the point of exhaustion as long as you are doing so safely. When you are working out with a certain rep count (how many repetitions of an exercise you do in a set) it should be very challenging to reach that rep count. If it isn't, increase the weight. Make sure to prioritize time under tension and maintain a slow and controlled tempo for every rep with full range of motion. The next step is to increase your protein intake, which can be challenging. We recommend eating 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal weight every day. If you want to soon be 160 pounds you should eat 160 grams of protein per day. Keep in mind this may lead to weight gain so if your goal is also to lose weight prioritize a calorie deficit over reaching your protein target.
Key takeaways: Strength train, high protein diet, and full range of motion during exercise.
Train like a pro
Tempo Range of Motion
Range of motion:
Range of motion (ROM) refers to the full movement potential of a joint or muscle through its natural path. The biggest mistake us trainers see when we go to the gym is poor range of motion. In every gym there is someone who is shorting themselves on progress because they are doing half reps or partial reps. Whenever you are working on any exercise be sure to watch a demonstration or tutorial for said exercise as can be found on the tutorials page of our programs.
Long length partials:
As a side not for those who are curious about long length partials; they are to be done as you start to reach failure of any movement but when you are working out it is best to use full range of motion as long as possible. Long length partials refer to limiting ROM to the part of an exercise where the working muscle is stretched or lengthened.
Time under Tension:
The key to building muscle is exposing your muscles to more tension over time. Increasing time with a slow tempo and tension with heavier weight both contribute to muscle growth. Combining these variables effectively leads to better strength and size gains.
Tempo:
Tempo refers to the speed at which a movement is completed. Often times people will speed through a movement and get it over with quickly and in doing so they are costing themselves gains. In other cases we slow ourselves down to much to the point where we are fatiguing our muscles without being able to get enough reps in. The best way to approach this is to choose a tempo where you can control the weight up and down at a 1-2 count (about 1-2 seconds) in each direction without bouncing at the bottom.
Reading Tempo:
Tempo in our workout program is written out as #–#–#–#, representing the timing of each phase of a movement (with each count being about one second). The first number is the eccentric (lowering) phase, the second is the pause at the bottom, the third is the concentric (lifting) phase, and the fourth is the pause at the top. For example, in a squat, if you pause at the bottom, the tempo would be 1-3-1-1. If you slow the descent, it would be 3-1-1-1. Typically, if no tempo is specified, assume 1-1-1-1 for a controlled and steady movement.
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